The recovery of tensile properties of CuCrZr alloy after hot isostatic pressing

The effects of hot isostatic pressing on the tensile and thermal properties of precipitation hardened CuCrZr-alloy and their possible recovery by a subsequent aging treatment have been investigated. For this purpose, hot isostatic pressing was simulated by solution annealing treatments finished with cooling rates between 0.03 and 1.5 K s−1. The experiments revealed that a successful recovery of the desired tensile strength is achievable only if hot isostatic pressing is finished with a cooling rate of at least 1 K s−1. In combination of scanning and transmission electron microscopy the reason was found in the changes of a bimodal precipitation distribution on a microscopic (≤100 nm) and mesoscopic (1–10 μm) length scale.